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A friend of mine has been an enthusiastic M44 player for a while now. As he got all of the expansions he found that he had so many different terrain tiles that set-up had begun taking longer than game play. This has lead to a gradual shift to Battlelore on his part.

Right now (until case is finished) I still keep everything in the original boxes. So... if I play a Eastern Front scenario, I just get out my original game and the EF exp. Same goes with Pacific expansion. BUT!!, WHILE I have that particular expansion out, being it EF OR Pacific, I will play a couple scenarios at one time/evening.

I made a special holding case for the tiles. They all sorted by type. I also have made a terrain tile reference sheet and attached it to the case. So, I am able to find the tiles I need for a given scenario w/ little trouble.

I made a special holding case for the tiles. They all sorted by type. I also have made a terrain tile reference sheet and attached it to the case. So, I am able to find the tiles I need for a given scenario w/ little trouble.

Let's see this original holding case! I'm always curious to see what other people come up with. I have mine in a case but I'm not thrilled with the system.

I made a special holding case for the tiles. They all sorted by type. I also have made a terrain tile reference sheet and attached it to the case. So, I am able to find the tiles I need for a given scenario w/ little trouble.

Let's see this original holding case! I'm always curious to see what other people come up with. I have mine in a case but I'm not thrilled with the system.

I will try to get a picture posted of my terrain storage case. But for now I will describe it. I found a strudy cardbox box w/ a fold down flap. I then made inserts w/ tabs (using thick paper). On the tabs, I put the tile info. I then measured how far apart each insert had to be depending on the number of that type of tile. The distance was the thickness of each tile type when the tiles were stacked on their sides. I then made marks for each inset on the bottom of the box and then glued each inset into place. It took a bit of time to construct, but was well worth it.

I always assumed if I mixed up all the terrain hexes, it would be a while to find and set up a scenario, so I too keep my game and expansions in their orginal boxes. And I keep all the original boxes in one medium size box. So when I take the medium size box out, I have all available to me.

I made a special holding case for the tiles. They all sorted by type. I also have made a terrain tile reference sheet and attached it to the case. So, I am able to find the tiles I need for a given scenario w/ little trouble.

Let's see this original holding case! I'm always curious to see what other people come up with. I have mine in a case but I'm not thrilled with the system.

I will try to get a picture posted of my terrain storage case. But for now I will describe it. I found a strudy cardbox box w/ a fold down flap. I then made inserts w/ tabs (using thick paper). On the tabs, I put the tile info. I then measured how far apart each insert had to be depending on the number of that type of tile. The distance was the thickness of each tile type when the tiles were stacked on their sides. I then made marks for each inset on the bottom of the box and then glued each inset into place. It took a bit of time to construct, but was well worth it.

That's an interesting setup! I got me to thinking, I wonder if an index card box could be used in a similar way? They have some nice ones that have a flip lid (attached by a hinge on the bottom section). They come in diffeent sizes, and have nice exteriors (like faux-leather). Another alternative could be those boxes used to store photos. You got my brain a churnin!

When I got my second set, I quickly figured out the need to seperate the sets... so I painted one set and left the other plain... the tiles... hummm... I then took the painted set and a black marker and blacked the edges of all the tiles of that set... then I got the terrain and russian sets... and I did brown for Russian and green for terrain and sorted them into a big carry case made for beading. I replaced one of the plastic plano boxes with a deeper box that still fit in the case and sorted all my tiles on their side by edge color... The Pacific then came along and really filled up my box, but I got a little room left for the airpack that I have still not opened yet!!!!

You can tell the original tiles from the expansions from the texture. The original M44 tiles are glossy, and the expansions are not and are kind of textured. I also keep mine in original boxes to keep them separate. I have a vinyl bag that all the boxes fit into, along with my notebook of rules and scenarios, and winter/desert board. I use little clips to keep the terrain pack plastic closed so that the terrain tiles don't slide all over the inside, as the boxes fit inside the bag standing up on end. My bag has the super bowl 33 logo on the outside, so it looks great too!

I found a nice Plano box in the craft section of Walmart that fits all the terrain tiles, but I don't have a sorting system yet, which makes setting up a real pain. I've been meaning to give some more thought to a logical method of sorting them.

I made a special holding case for the tiles. They all sorted by type. I also have made a terrain tile reference sheet and attached it to the case. So, I am able to find the tiles I need for a given scenario w/ little trouble.

How do you sort them by type, when there is different types on both siddes of the tile? Did you split them in two?

As I have two copies of everything, I keep all the tiles in one of the original boxes, sorted into types depicted on the front facing of the tiles. Each series is stored in Zip-lock bags. A List of Contents ensure that I can locate rare tiles without having to search too much for them.

I don't have a 90° 'edge at top' rack but I have colour coded the edges of the expansions (a dot on every other corner) I normally keep them in 'box order' as far as possible and sort the Base Set into one stack of river and one of hill/hedge, the Terrain Pack into rail, road, river/lake and desert, and Eastern Front into frozen woods and frozen lake/City ruins. I haven't yet got Pacific Theatre, but it proabably won't be long arriving.

yeah, my plano box has them on their side like file cards. The edges are all marked by expansion so I just flip thru the row until I find what I am looking for. If I don't see it I turn the box around and flip thru them again looking at the back side.

my micro scale terrain stuff is in large ammo boxes for transport with the Minis in drawer fishing plano boxes.

I don't have any pics of it, and my set is a little far away at the moment, but I would suggest grabbing a handfull of tiles ( thats what I did ) and take them with you. Hit the hobby stores and look in the beading areas for boxes, also the craft section and paints area have off size boxes. Just see how they fit and how they stack. The box I have has no dividers in it, I had to make my own to keep everything from sliding around. But it holds them all upright so I can sort thru them fast.

You could sort terrain by major type on one side. For example When I sort out the terrain pack tiles to put them away, I put the desert tiles together, then the road tiles, the railroad tiles, and the airfield tiles. Then you can use a "contents" sheet when you need certain tiles to see whats on the back of the one you need. In the original M44 box, I put river tiles on one side and hills/hedgerows/woods in the other. But after counting the river tiles you need, I believe one or two more to make 22, so I use the town hexes to make it 22 tiles on each side.

I posted this information on another thread but thought this might be in interest here.
The comparmentalized boxes fit the tiles perfectly. Note the picture of same.

I had been looking for some way to store the parts for the games so I would not have to have 6 or 7 different boxes, one for each expansion, and then find out that the tiles and playing components still get all messed up. I was looking everywhere I could possibly find. I checked on the internet and was unable to find something that satisfied my request. I live in central Ohio and went to a local Hobby Lobby store a couple days ago and decided to once again look to see if they had anything that might fit my bill. To my great wonderment and surprise I found the perfect fits for my request.

Box Nr. 1 is a compartmentalized box that has 18 compartments and can be decreased by removable vertical sections to increase the size of the compartments. This box is made by Akro-mils, P.O. Box 989 Akron, Ohio, 44309. The box model number is 05905 and measures 14 3/8 W x 9 1/2 D x 2 1/2 H. The compartments inside are 2.5 inches by 2 inches, imagine that, the exact size of the terrain tiles. The UPC code is 032903284904. As you can see from the picture. The tanks fit perfectly for the allies and for the Axis there are two tanks that won't fit in one compartment. All soldiers fit in one compartment and I placed the extra pieces in a third compartment.

Box Nr. 2 is a large Snap top Case. It is made by IRIS USA, inc, Pleasant Prairie, Wi. 53158, web site www.irisusainc.com. I am not sure what the model is but the dimensions are 17 1/4 2 x 14 1/8 D x 6 1/16 H and the UPC code is 762016364865. This is a single compartment box and I was able to store my game boards, rule books and other items in this box. I am also able to store one of the compartmentalized boxes in this box as well.

Both boxes snap shut very securely and one of the nice things is that they both have hinges on the back and not just a piece of plastic that will break after the lid is opened and closed 12 times.

Now for the damages. I purchased these boxes at hobby lobby for a grand total of $9.99 for the large snap top box and, look out now, $5.99 for the compartmentalized box. Now here was the catch. I also got an additional 30% off because they were having a sale on this type of items.

I purchased two of the compartmentalized boxes. Here is the reason why. I have two of the Memoir44 games, two of the Pacific theater, one of the terrain pack, one of the air pack and one of the Desert/Winter board expansion. All of these games and pieces fit into these three boxes very nicely. There is no cramping of parts to force bending of guns or bodies and everything is easily accessable. One of the nicest things is that I can reach my finger to the bottom of the terrain tiles and pull out the entire stack of tiles and never place any undue pressure on the tile sides, due to tha accessability of the compartment.

As you probably can tell, I am very pleased with my find.

Hopefully the pictures will go along with this. If they do not work out please work with me and I will do all I can to help you see the end result.

I made a special holding case for the tiles. They all sorted by type. I also have made a terrain tile reference sheet and attached it to the case. So, I am able to find the tiles I need for a given scenario w/ little trouble.

How do you sort them by type, when there is different types on both siddes of the tile? Did you split them in two?

There is a space for each type (I think there are 70+ slots in my case right now). For example: Each Hill tile which has a different terrain on the back (Hill-Forest / Hill-Road /ect) has its own slot.

A friend of mine has been an enthusiastic M44 player for a while now. As he got all of the expansions he found that he had so many different terrain tiles that set-up had begun taking longer than game play. This has lead to a gradual shift to Battlelore on his part.

How do you sort your terrain pieces to make set up easier?

Try playing battlelore with all the goofy little figures from all the different expansions. It's almost impossible to get all the figures correct with their little colored flgas....takes a hell of a lot longer than memoir to set-up.